What I meant by "saving the season" was that at the start of the season the team was absolutely terrible especially the goaltending & worse than most people expected for a last place team & the comments in here proved that. Once Murray & Hogberg were injured the goaltending improved, most were very happy with Daccord, Forsberg & Gustavsson which IMO turned the team around. They gave the team the opportunity to win games & weren't letting in so many bad goals that deflated the team as Murray & Hogberg were doing earlier on.
The goalie coach was replaced for a reason & that was because the two NHL goalies were terrible, the coach responsible for the defence didn't get replaced it was the goalie coach. Ottawa actually got some picks back for the defencemen they traded I doubt they will be able to move either Murray or Hogberg after this season. Do you think that Hogeberg will be back next yr? IMO he won't because he sucked so badly this yr after a rather good end of the season the previous yr. The only reason Murray will be back is because he has a contract & I doubt anyone wants him after his performance this season, I doubt Seattle takes him for free. That's what I meant by saving the season, we all knew they were going to be a last place team & it wasn't until the goaltending got better that the team started improving which gave the fans hope again & now we have a team that most look forward to for next yr. Before that it looked hopeless.
I disagree with you on Tkachuk IMO his impact is obvious & it's much more likely that this team would follow Tkuchuk before Chabot or Stutzle. They don't talk about Chabot the way they talk about Tkachuk, he seems to be the focal point of every conversation in every game with the media. They will both likely outscore him at some point, but that IMO doesn't make them the better players, it makes them better offensive players. Tkachuk does more to impact every game than just score & he does that as well. Batherson & Norris IMO are both complete players too. Chabot is one of the best offensive defencemen in the league, but Tkachuk IMO is more valuable. I think it will take a little while for Stutzle to be a complete player, but there is no denying his offensive ability. We agree on Mete but let's face it, that 2nd LD spot is Sandersons whenever he arrives, it will be the 3rd LD spot that will be challenged in future. Given his age & contract I doubt they will be able to move Dadonov until maybe his last yr, but he could still be an effective player for them in the bottom six until a better prospect emerges.
I'm still very surprised to read that people would have that opinion... It seems pretty obvious to me that the "team defense" improved A LOT during the season (mainly on the ROAD), as they fixed the personnel (players) issues and structural deficiencies (defensive coverage, breakout strategies, hockey systems, etc... all of this is coaching's work who have to make the players play a system efficiently. There's always a limit to this with the talent in place but some coaches have proven to be very efficient defensively, Hitchcock probably the most renown for that)
Some VERY obvious proofs :
- Look at all Sens goalies stats at home vs road all season.
Gustavsson : 0.950 vs 0.914 (+ 0.36 at home)
Daccord : 0.911 vs 0.887 (+ 0.24 at home)
Murray : 0.909 vs 0.875 (+ 0.34 at home)
Forsberg : 0.933 vs 0.889 (+ 0.44 at home)
Hogberg : 0.898 vs 0.866 (+ 0.32 at home)
- Look at Murray/Hogberg stats earlier in the season vs after when they came back from injury. They didn't just coincidentally/magically went from ECHL level goalies to good/superstars NHL goalies.
Murray before April : 0.880 SV%
Murray since April : 0.954 V% (+ 0.74)
Hogberg before April : 0.859 SV%
Hogberg since April : 0.912 SV% (+ 0.53)
The question is :
Do you really believe that all of this is just a coincidence?
I wouldn't grant much credibility in terms of hockey understanding to anyone answering yes to that question.
PS : never been very high on Hogberg, either he was just a placeholder and hopefully they didn't think he could have been a long term solution. Matt Murray absolutely has #1 starter ability, and well he already dominated both the NHL and AHL. But will need to be healthier going forward, too many injuries (even though it's normal goalies get injuries)
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Regarding Tkachuk, I think you didn't read correctly? I said he's as impactful or will be as impactful as the best Sens players. But he's not and never will be the best Sens player. He doesn't have Chabot or Stutzle elite talent. Not talking about leadership here, I'm talking about Tkachuk not being the "best player on the team by far", which is what you said in the post I initially quoted. My players "scouting report" is not really based on how the medias talk about players...
Don't think it will take very long for Sutzle to be considered a star. Maybe it will take a bit more time to be considered elite.
Finally, regarding Mete, I never wanted him on the 2nd pair. He's perfect at 3rd line LD IMO.